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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22804423">Cantera: A Foundation Story-Part 4</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zurrunba/pseuds/Zurrunba'>Zurrunba</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Cantera [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Foundation - Isaac Asimov</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cantera, Fillian Empire, Galactic Empire, Gen, M/M, Science Fiction, foundation, galaxy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 08:47:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,411</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22804423</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zurrunba/pseuds/Zurrunba</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Galactic Empire has fallen, with kings, tyrants, and other rulers scrambling to seize power in systems across the galaxy. One such ruler is the Tyrant of Fillia, who thirty years before had crushed a rebellion from the planet Cantera, leaving desolation in its wake. Now the people of Cantera just wish to get on with their lives, but then from somewhere the tyrant gets wind that perhaps things weren't as calm and docile on that planet as the King of Cantera portrayed.</p><p>King Hiero had thought he knew who the traitor was in his midst, but when the suspect was mysteriously murdered he was forced to change his mind, at which point he found himself on the receiving end of a blaster. Now nearly incapacitated, he speaks with everyone he can think of to figure out what was happening before the traitor succeeded in taking him out.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Cantera [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1605262</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Cantera: A Foundation Story-Part 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Grij, what happened?”</p><p>The king’s remaining two counselors sat together in one of the secret palace rooms that King Hiero of Cantera used occasionally for special meetings. Seeing as the king had recently been shot by someone masquerading as a palace guard one can understand why they would take such a step. Along with those two were a couple members of the staff of both the manufacturing minister Oris, and the military minister Grij. </p><p>“I’m not sure, my friend,” Grij replied, staring off into space. This clearly irritated Oris considerably. Captain Tya of orbital command stood off to the side with two members of the king’s guard. Eileen, the wife of the recently murdered counselor Iar, who was in charge of agriculture and much of Cantera’s trade, was present. Two of her husband’s assistants were present as well. Only Oris had showed up alone.</p><p>“And that’s all you have to say?” Oris demanded.</p><p>Snapping out of his thoughts Grij responded, “Unless you want a bunch of uncertain gossip. Gossip may be useful at times, but here I don’t think so.”</p><p>“Well, we can start there anyway,” Said Eileen. Everyone in the room was on edge. Too many people had been attacked and some killed since the Fillian Tyrant’s departure from Cantera a couple weeks before. “My husband was killed the day before this attack on King Hiero. That can’t be a coincidence.”</p><p>“No it’s not,” admitted Grij. “Counselor Iar’s credentials had been used to get the attacker into the king’s offices. Whoever killed him had something to do this. It’s impossible to know if it’s the same person.”</p><p>“Captain Tyr, you were one of the last ones to see him before the attack. What did he want to discuss?”</p><p>The captain’s expression was unreadable to any in the room. She was clearly not wanting to say too much here. “He asked me to inform him of the condition of my commander General Shore and to make arrangements for the two to talk directly once the general was in condition to do so.”</p><p>“And that’s it?” Oris asked.</p><p>“That’s all he wanted from me at the time. He looked to have a lot on his mind.”</p><p>Grij and Oris looked at each other for a moment. General Shore’s condition could only mean one thing. The king wished to speak to several people directly. Hiero was suspicious of many people, and his advisors weren’t exempt. Were there others the king had spoken with as well with his “inquiries?”</p><p>“So what now?” asked Oris.<br/>
“I haven’t had a chance yet to talk with Generals Yetz and Vion. Once I’ve spoken with them I’ll have more to tell you. In the meantime I want to make sure that the king’s whereabouts not be known by anyone outside this room. Right now it’s not certain who might be behind this attack.”<br/>
______________________________________</p><p>Hiero opened his eyes and was struck by a blinding light.  The sting was intense and his eyes watered. Then his eyes adjusted and he found himself in something that looked like a greenhouse, but there were no plants to be seen. Just a couple desks and some beds along with several medical devices scattered in various places. It looked as though there were no ceiling, until one looked a while some thin panes of glass could be made out.</p><p>“Good to see you awake, your Grace,” a man’s voice said.</p><p>Apparently there had been someone sitting in a chair a couple feet from his bed that he hadn’t noticed. The man was dressed in a general’s uniform and held a computer pad in his hand. His face was slightly pale, but the man was clearly focused on the king. There was something familiar about him, but Hiero couldn’t quite place it.</p><p>When the king hadn’t said anything else the man continued, “I understand you wish to speak with me. Sorry I haven’t been available. It took a lot of persuasion for Captain Tyr to allow this meeting without raising an alarm. She seems to think I need to be babied a little longer.”</p><p>Captain Tyr? Then it hit him. This was General Shore. </p><p>“General, I thought you had been in critical condition two weeks ago.”</p><p>“Three and a half, to be precise. I’m afraid you’ve been in rather critical condition yourself. Some might argue you still are.”</p><p>Three and a half weeks? He’d been out for ten days? Then the memory came back. Two of his security guards had been struck with blaster fire and then the weapon had been pointed at him. He dove for cover and got hit in the shoulder. More blaster fire had been heard as well as voices screaming, calling his name, but he couldn’t respond. Before he could move another blaster hit him in the chest as he heard shots rattling through the halls. He remembered nothing after that.</p><p>“I guess I was lucky I’d brought that personal force field with me to the office, but it doesn’t seem to have worked as well as it was supposed to.”</p><p>“It was good enough to save your life. Too bad it was a cheap imitation of those I hear they have on Terminus. Perhaps some of our Foundation friends might be willing to slip a few our way.”</p><p>The king smiled, and then coughed. A dull pain still resonated from his chest. When the general stood up to come over the king waved him off. “I’m alright, general. But to answer your question I doubt the Foundation would be willing to part with those. I really only have one contact and maybe two others who show up from time to time. Our distance traders haven’t made their way to Terminus or its empire boundaries yet.”</p><p>After a moment the king continued, “Now that you’re here, I do want to ask you a few questions.”</p><p>“Of course, your Grace.”</p><p>“Since I’ve been out for a while, have there been any other problems on Station One or the others.”</p><p>“I assume you’re not referring to some petty thefts and squabbles.”</p><p>“Murders, or attempted ones,” the king replied. “Both Counselor Grij and your Captain Tyr have spoken to me of them.”</p><p>The general looked at him a moment. “Might I ask what you know already?”</p><p>“I don’t know much, but I do know that things always get left out of reports, and since you’re in charge there and was one of the victims who survived I’d like to get it straight from you.”</p><p>Slowly at first, but then gradually the general discussed the events that were happening on the station up until the return of their mission to Trantor. The general then explained the three pronged mission to Trantor: to obtain all data concerning this sector of the galaxy on stellar cartography, to determine trade activities and actors of those doing business on Trantor, and to discover any habitable planets between here and there.”</p><p>“Habitable planets?” the king asked in surprise.</p><p>“Don’t ask me to explain it. I wasn’t give the reason why. He didn’t offer that information and I didn’t ask.”</p><p>Obeying orders, just as any good officer would do. </p><p>“It was when these ships returned that the attacks began?”</p><p>“Yes, your Grace. So far everyone who’s been attacked has been affiliated with the mission.”</p><p>“Have there been any attacks since the one on you a couple weeks ago?”</p><p>“Yes. One technician was murdered three days ago. When we caught the Fillian spy trying to break into my rooms we assumed it would end. Sadly it didn’t.”</p><p>“You know for sure it was a Fillian spy, then?” When the general nodded the king continued, “Do you know what you uncovered that might cause all this trouble?”</p><p>“Perhaps.” The general then described that two of the planets that weren’t on their old charts were inhabited by Fillian colonies with orbital bases. One of which wasn’t far from the Duran system that Cantera had strong ties to. There were also old bases orbiting uninhabitable planets that had once been empty for centuries, dating back to imperial times, but were starting to show signs of life again. They all looked to be orchestrated by Fillian authorities, but a couple spies Shore had contact with indicated that some of them the tyrant had no knowledge of. </p><p>One other thing discovered by their mission was that at least one faction on Fillia had it in for the tyrant and might be planning an overthrow of the government. It was uncertain if this group was trying to replace the tyrant with another one or if some idea of returning the planet to some historic utopia was their plan. </p><p>So they did know more than what the king was being told. He knew that everything couldn’t possibly be told to him about everything. There just wasn’t enough time for the king to deal it. That was why he had underlings to do the work. The Fillian spy on the base left him with concern. The tyrant could easily be noting what military capabilities Cantera had. In General Shore’s office would be the top secret files collected over the years with orbital defense. </p><p>“Your Grace, should I understand that our communication remain between us?” the general asked.</p><p>“Yes, general.”</p><p>“Even from Counselor Grij?”</p><p>“Yes, even from him,” the king replied. That should make things very clear. Even the counselors were not always to be trusted, and perhaps one of them was involved with the attacks on Station One, the murder of Counselor Iar, and even the attack on the king himself. Iar’s credentials had been taken from his home when the counselor was killed. They would’ve been what was used to get this assassin so close to him.</p><p>After a final salute the general departed, leaving the king alone in this strange infirmary.<br/>
_____________________________________________</p><p>It took five more days before the king was able to actually walk around without some kind of assistance. During that time his two counselors and a couple others were the only ones allowed in or to even know the king’s whereabouts. That couldn’t last much longer. The people had to know that Hiero was alive and well. </p><p>Counselors Grij and Oris came by and spoke with him about important things that he needed to sign or make decisions on. Eileen Iar had largely picked up on a lot of her late husband’s duties until things could be sorted out. Having Eileen in charge of the agriculture and interstellar trade outside the Fillian Empire was a little strange, but she had worked with her husband many times as his secretary, so until he could determine a suitable replacement she’d have to do.</p><p>When he received the computer pad from the king’s main office he started to sift through the activity on the planet. He also made a few key inquiries to make sure that no undesirable software had found its way inside. There was none, though he had to admit that didn’t rule out someone possibly having a look at some files in the chaos after he’d been shot. That would have to be looked into later. First he needed to speak with Eileen about what had been taken from her home.</p><p>“I have a list of files that were on Gale’s computer,” Eileen said. (Gale was her husband’s first name). “And this list are those that were downloaded by his attacker.”</p><p>“It looks like our interactions with the planet Duran were all that was accessed,” the king replied as he sifted through the files. The trade agreement between Duran and Cantera was the largest file, but then some of the activities being done under the auspices of that trade had been highlighted. </p><p>“Yes, that’s what I noticed too.” Pointing out a couple items with the documents she continued, “Gale had highlighted these two parts of the treaty for some reason. One that deals with munitions and the other talks about shipments of grain. Note that in this section that talks about grain it also mentions something called ‘supplements’, but doesn’t narrow down exactly what that might mean. Naturally people would attribute that word to imply something like vitamins, but it doesn’t specifically say that.”</p><p>“No, it doesn’t,” the king agreed. This treaty had been organized by his father and Counselor Iar’s predecessor. He’d been informed by the trade commissioners of this treaty, but not gone into great detail. On a whim he pulled up information of Duran’s trade activities with the Fillian home world. There were several agreements, as one might expect between two planets under the same rulers. Nothing looked too unusual, until he found a clause in one of the trade agreements mentioning changes of policies should certain events come to pass. In that section there was reference to Duran supplying what information and assistance it could should Cantera make another attempt at revolting.</p><p>That struck him hard. This kind of demand would’ve made perfect sense thirty years ago after Cantera’s attempted revolt, but this treaty he now read had been signed and renewed the previous year. The governor of Duran was either hedging his bets, hoping that this would throw the tyrant off the scent, or Governor Yshon, someone Hiero had considered a close friend, was breaking all strings from Cantera. Treaties could be bent given the right circumstances. The governor would have to be someone he spoke with soon.</p><p>“Can you think of a reason why these things are so important?” Hiero asked, not sharing his thoughts at the moment.</p><p>She thought for a moment. “Some of these are things recently collected by Gale. Maybe someone doesn’t want this information getting out.”</p><p>“But certainly killing him has had the opposite effect of what they wanted if that’s the case.”</p><p>“Killing him was probably not what they intended to do, just to collect the files.”</p><p>One hopes that was the case. After the attack on the king he wasn’t sure about anything. Does the death of his counselor mean he wasn’t involved in treachery? Maybe those he was passing information to felt that he had to go, but that didn’t quite make sense either. </p><p>“Thank you, Eileen. That will be all.”</p><p>Though composed, her face was still pale from her grief. He’d have to wait a day or so before prodding her for any more potential information. </p><p>Before anyone else showed up there he had to sift through a lot of information. Too much was going on and he couldn’t tell just who he could trust.<br/>
_____________________________________________</p><p>It appeared out of nowhere, but then nothing surprised the king anymore. The Tartan, the missing ship that Iar had been hunting down since its disappearance was in orbit around a barren planet of a nearby red giant. No life existed on any of the planets around that star, nor could it. Gas giants and poisonous atmospheres being but a few reasons for that.<br/>
Nobody should have any reason to be there, especially not a trading vessel.</p><p>“You’re absolutely certain that the ship hadn’t been there till now?” he asked the lieutenant from palace observations. Since the suspicions about his advisors had arisen he’d made arrangements to have multiple sources looking over the same data. Grij had already passed this information on that morning, but had yet to come to speak with the king about it.</p><p>“Yes, your Grace,” was the reply. “One moment there was nothing there and the next it was. There was no sign of its movement through that system in the last week. That red giant’s system is passed by several of our traders on a regular basis. Granted the vessels don’t travel through the system itself when jumping from one spot to the next. They’d be closer to one of the far planets. Once a ship goes deeper into a system it would be more likely to be noticed.”</p><p>“So why was this planet observed yesterday as well as today?”</p><p>“Coincidentally a research vessel of ours happened to be investigating signs of the old Galactic Empire’s presence where no habitable planets were.”</p><p>Signs of the old empire. That sounded a lot like what General Shore’s work involved, which meant the ship had likely been sent on Grij’s orders.</p><p>“Did the research vessel find anything else? You said they were looking for signs of the old empire in the system.”</p><p>“That’s uncertain, your Grace. They are still investigating the system. Once the vessel was detected they immediately informed their superiors who in turn informed your ministers. I then made contact with that vessel to send the information directly to you.”</p><p>“Thank you, lieutenant.” After a moment he asked, “What is the name of this system, by the way?”</p><p>“Rhea Alta, your Grace.”<br/>
___________________________</p><p>After the lieutenant’s departure Hiero pulled his pad out to check the information from the nearby system. There was a lot of information to sift through. There were twelve planets as well as several asteroids the surveyors had been gathering information on. The missing ship was found orbiting the fifth planet, a planet with a fiery explosive surface surrounded by a poison atmosphere. Nothing could survive being any closer to the planet than the ship was and the ship itself would be destroyed if it tried getting much closer than it was. </p><p>He sifted through the other information and didn’t see anything too unusual. The orbits of most of the larger planets were in a different part of their long orbits from this one. The fourth planet had just passed the fifth two weeks before. The gas giants showed no unusual signs of activity, natural or artificial. Then something in one of the images with the information given stood out. Each of the gas giants had many satellites, but surrounding one of those satellites there was something that looked unnatural. It was listed as something the surveyors would be investigating, but the discovery of the ship jumped that to top priority.</p><p>What Tempus had told him a few weeks before came to mind. An old ship had arrived on the Fillian home world and was destroyed soon after it landed. That ship had come from somewhere in Cantera’s side of the Fillian Empire. Somewhere where there were no known habitable planets. Some place like the Rhea Alta System. </p><p>The king remained contemplating this when Counselor Grij came into the room where the king had recently been moved to. The three guards who watched the king eased their tension when they realized who it was. Everyone in security was on high alert since the two body guards had been killed while failing to protect the king. </p><p>“Your Grace, it’s good to see you alive and well.”</p><p>“And it’s good to feel alive, but ‘well’ might not be the best description just now. I’m still stuck here and not able to move very much.”</p><p>Nodding, Grij said, “Sorry. Just following protocol, your Grace.”</p><p>“Cut with the pleasantries. I have no time for it. What brings you here?”</p><p>“Very well, sir. I see that you’ve been talking with several members of mine and Iar’s staff. Might I ask what you are inquiring about?”</p><p>“Since I asked them to report to me and not divulge the content of our conversations to others?” Hiero had his eye on Grij’s expressions. Of all those who served the king he had always been the hardest to read. “Simple. Someone, or some people, are trying to undermine me and remove me from Cantera one way or another. The failed assassination attempt makes it clear that someone in the higher level of power here is helping them, if not being the actual perpetrator. You do understand how I might wish to verify things with other sources.”</p><p>Narrowing his eyes, he replied, “Yes, your Grace. So might I assume that I’m under investigation?”</p><p>“To a certain extent everyone is. You, Iar, and Oris had to be ruled out before I can move forward. You served my father well, but loyalties don’t always transfer from father to son. Due to certain information I obtained I was led to believe that Iar had been a traitor passing information on to the tyrant. Now that he’s dead I might have to re-evaluate things.”</p><p>“And I’m at the top of your list?”</p><p>“As I said, I have to rule out those at the highest levels before moving downward. Some people are easier to rule out than others.”</p><p>“And have I been ruled out, your Grace?”</p><p>It took a few moments for the king to think about what he was going to say. The fact that it took him this long probably had already given a kind of answer, but he felt he needed to make something clear.</p><p>“Not quite yet. There’s no point in lying to you about it. I have always wanted to count you as one of my friends, but current circumstances have forced me to take a closer look.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “You admit that there are a lot of things you don’t tell me, basically because I can’t be micromanaging everything going on with Cantera. That’s understandable. But if there’s anything you haven’t told me that might help me to uncover who is passing information on to the tyrant I’d ask you to please tell me. Too much is at stake.”</p><p>The counselor’s tension eased up just slightly before he took a deep breath, glancing off to the window in contemplation. “There’s something that happened just before we discovered the missing ship that went to Gondor. While monitors were distracted by this someone accessed some communication logs between a lieutenant of the palace guard and the office of the counselor of agriculture. I was planning on evaluating it when I got word of General Shore’s meeting with you a few days ago.” Saying this he pulled out a data pad and handed it to the king. </p><p>Hiero pushed the button to play the message.<br/>
__________________________________</p><p>“Eileen, what did you send the tyrant?”</p><p>Eileen Iar stood terrified before the king as he sat behind the desk in one of his less known offices in the upper levels of the palace. The room was secured by six palace guards, two of which stood behind the agriculture minister’s wife. She’d been thoroughly searched before being allowed into this room. This might seem excessive with a woman he’d known for so long, but after hearing the communication she’d had with a member of the palace guard he was fighting to contain his anger.</p><p>“Your Grace,” she stuttered. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”</p><p>She stood there trying her best to look sincere, but not doing a very good job of it. Her eyes kept shifting from one side of the room to the other as though she were looking for a means of escape.</p><p>“Eileen, don’t play stupid with me. I have you on a call with Lieutenant Ruw talking about moving Fillian dignitaries from Aru station to the palace. There have been no Fillian dignitaries on the planet at the time and only agricultural business is supposed to be done out of Aru station. I’ve checked the logs and there were four people who arrived on Aru Port three months ago. They were signed in with your husband’s ID, but Iar wasn’t on Cantera at the time.”</p><p>She continued to stare at him in frightened silence. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting. Perhaps some made up explanation of the visitors, or a claim that someone must’ve used the ID without here knowing (the latter was impossible since she was also caught on camera). Instead, she just continued staring in scared silence.</p><p>“Lieutenant Ruw is in custody and has already admitted that you two were involved with sending messages and moving people on and off the planet. I just don’t know what part Gale played in it.”</p><p>That broke her silence. “Gale knew nothing about what I was doing,” she quickly stammered.</p><p>“I want to believe that, but I don’t know just how deep this goes. Both of your sons are married to aristocratic families and your daughter is married to my nephew. All kinds of schemes could be going on behind the scenes all over this planet, not to mention the neighboring worlds.”</p><p>Eileen fell to her knees. “Please, Hier- your Grace, my children have nothing to do with this. Gale didn’t know. I was just slipping small things to the tyrant’s people to make them think I was on their side and that nothing important was going on.”</p><p>“Yet the tyrant showed up here clearly suspicious of something. Did you really think that sneaking those Fillian spies in our midst wouldn’t cause trouble? Did one of them kill Gale?”</p><p>Her shaking worsened then. “N-n-n-o-o-o,” came from her mouth. “They headed for one of the manufacturing plants. I made sure that the one they went to was one making farming equipment.”</p><p>“And you know this for certain? Did you keep track of them after you let them loose from Aru?”</p><p>She remained silent then, shaking her head with tears in her eyes. </p><p>“Who killed your husband, Eileen,” he finally said after a minute of silence. “I know you know.” Technically he wasn’t completely sure, but he had to get her to tell him what she knew.</p><p>“His name is Tummo. He was supposed to use Gale’s key card to get into the office to access the computer. Gale was supposed to be in Ulli Sector investigating issues with the plant there.” </p><p>This was a disaster. How many spies had been in and out of Cantera? He wasn’t fool enough to think that what Eileen was telling him was the whole truth. She was probably holding something back. And besides that it was doubtful she knew everything these spies were doing on the planet. First action had to be taken against the enemies that he knew.</p><p>“Alright Eileen, if you want me to take you seriously about your family you need to tell me everything you know. First, how do you get messages to the tyrant?”<br/>
___________________________________</p><p>In the Rhea Alta system unexpected things were happening. Both to the Canterans and those whose business it was to maintain the tyrant’s interests. The refurbished station orbiting one of the gas giants there was abuzz with activity since the unexpected ship appeared in orbit around one of the planets closer to the star.</p><p>When the first surveyor ship had appeared in the system the captain who commanded the base had them on alert. The renovating of this old mining station was in its middle stage. They were waiting for more supplies to arrive from the Fillian resources in the other parts of the empire. That was part of the reason the tyrant had arranged to have ten of its cruisers there, to guard against attack if their presence should be detected by the untrustworthy rulers of Cantera or the other factions in the government that hadn’t been eliminated. There seemed to be a new one coming up as soon as one is taken out.</p><p>The second surveyor ship was something that couldn’t be ignored, for it began looking at some of the satellites of the larger planets. Eventually this base would be discovered. He would need to prepare things so that if that second ship came close to this station that it could be quickly dealt with, then the other surveyor could be destroyed by an attack immediately afterward. The trick was getting his ships secretly in formation without the regular traffic going through noticing. The Canteran ship orbiting the inner planet should then be removed and investigated.</p><p>The captain sat brooding over the orders he’d be giving out. Two ships to take out each surveyor should be enough to eliminate them without a trace. Though they would suspect Fillian involvement with the disappearance of those ships, it would take them some time to gather their nerve to do something about it. By then the tyrant’s navy would be on Cantera’s home planet destroying it as it had thirty years before. This time there wouldn’t be nine other planets to assist them.</p><p>Just as he was getting up to give the order a shipman of some sort wearing a currier’s emblem stood outside his office. The boy appeared frightened, like he was afraid to give the captain bad news. Being given the signal the man slowly walked in.</p><p>“What is it, shipman,” the captain said with clear irritation in his voice.</p><p>Swallowing, the man replied, “Sir, our ship sent with the message to Tyrant Yth was destroyed soon after landing on Fillia.”</p><p>Stunned, the captain stared messenger a moment, registering what he’d just heard. “Destroyed? How?”</p><p>“Information is still incomplete, but what we know is that it landed on the inner base near the palace as it was instructed to do. Our messenger was met by members of the tyrant’s personal guard and led to the hangars. Soon afterward the ship was hit by some weapon and exploded. The guards and your messenger were then attacked and killed. The data pad was then taken. By the time more palace guards made it to the hangar all they found were the remnants of the ships and five dead bodies in Fillian uniforms. There was no trace of the responsible party.”</p><p>The message never reached the tyrant. There’d be no attack against Fillia without it, at least not as soon as the captain would’ve like it. There was too much evidence of Canteran treachery to be ignored. He’d have to send another message, this time perhaps a little less secure, but something that would definitely get to its destination. What happened on Fillia made it clear that there were other parties who were stopping messages from getting to their destinations. Someone on this base likely was passing on information to these dissidents. Flushing that person out would have to take priority over his plans against Cantera, or at least he’d have to plan something that would address both problems.</p><p>When he dismissed the messenger, the shipman fled as quickly as he could. The captain smiled. At least he had a good grip on most of those present who feared what he might do. First thing was to start preparing his next message.</p><p>First thing was to prepare the four ships he’d need to deal with the Canteran surveyors. Reaching the station command center he began giving orders, choosing with care those who’d be moving out. That second ship looked like it would be in ranger to observe the base within the next two days.</p><p>The beep that came over the base’s scanners didn’t register immediately. That sound had been going off every hour or so with new data coming in as it regarded to nearby space debris. He’d leave the handling of space dust to his underlings.</p><p>That beep was followed by another one just two minutes later, then another, and another. Curious, he looked over to the monitors on the far side of the room. The people who sat at the desks were frantically checking data and looking at visuals on the screens. Three more beeps happened before the captain wondered if he should be concerned.</p><p>Moving to another computer he pulled up the large screen so that he could see what the sensors were viewing outside the station. The explosions he saw at first confused him. What was happening?</p><p>Then several ships came into view. Warships with Fillian markings came into view, attacking the ships that lay in the hangers and orbited the station. Frantically he called for the ships to be manned and to strike back. Only one cannon currently functioned on the base itself. The others weren’t planned to be working for another month. He called the cannon operators to return fire.</p><p>The base was struck several times, causing the artificial gravity to slowly lose stability. His confusion about the ships cleared up when he saw the logo that marked it as made on Cantera. Any question as to whether or not the Canterans planned a revolt was gone. </p><p>Only one ship managed to make it out of the hanger, but was quickly eliminated. The station continued to get hammered. The functioning cannon was taken out after doing only minimal damage to the attacking fleet. Not long afterward the command center burst open, exposing everyone there to the vacuum of space. There were no survivors. </p><p> </p><p>Here ends Part 4 of Cantera: A Foundation Story</p>
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